We've Reached 40!

40 pieces of art that is. :) TK just delivered a sizable batch of art (all of it gorgeous) and I feel like we are rapidly reaching a milestone....the half-way mark! The deck is officially 90 cards, but will likely reach 100 (for bonus cards, a booster pack, that sort of thing).

Of course, all of this beautiful linework is going to need a colour pass. Sigh. So much work to do. But it's going to turn out absolutely amazing. This is a HIGH quality product folks. The art will be so good, people will want to frame each card. ;)

A bit of news; Bronwyn has rejoined us and is working hard on another batch of cards. Lisa, a new artist, is busy working on a few of the jump cards. And TK has put her pencil back to work designing the horse characters and working on a few more of the Skill cards.

Things are moving forward. I'm so thrilled!

~Kay

"Competitive Spirit" (art credit: TK)

We are looking for more talented illustrators!

Hi everybody, thanks for stopping by! Funleague Games still needs A LOT of artwork to be created for our, get this; not one but TWO horse-themed card games. We currently have a few openings available for contract artists to come aboard and create gorgeous artwork for our superstar horse games.

Check out some of this super-cool artwork that's been created so far:

"Apples and Grain" (art credit: TK)

"Quick Recovery" (art credit: Bronwyn)
Think you have what it takes to join our illustrious crew? Send us a link to your work at funleaguegames (at) gmail.com today!

*** And don't forget to scroll down to previous post entries to see even more examples of truly awesome artwork. ***

Analogue Game Creation, Part 3.

Hey there! Jeff here,

In todays entry for Analogue Game Creation, I'll be covering
Abstract Games VS. Theme Games! as related to game design and creation.

A couple definitions: Abstract game. One in which there is no specific theme that places the game into a context, setting, location, time etc. For example the game connect four is an abstract game.

Theme Game. One in which the game takes place in a time, location, or references characters and/or a fictitious or real world setting. For example, Ticket to Ride is a theme-based game where players place railroads along routes at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

For me, theme is a pivotal way to come up with the initial game concept. Perfect Stride - Cross Country began with a statement very similar to this: "An exciting card game in which players race across country on horseback and jump obstacles" The theme involves a few elements: Horses, jumping, racing and countryside. There is no specific time period except to assume that the game occurs in the present. The themes involved are very important to the game and help make it what it is.

For the purpose of discussion, I'll relate the idea of abstract game design to the concept of game mechanic. In a previous posting I mention game mechanic as being what makes a game function. (more or less!) When discussing game mechanic I'd say... ignore the theme for a moment and focus only on what makes the game play function. So without theme we're left with only abstract concepts of game function or mechanic.

Back to theme. I almost always begin game design with a theme. That's the way my mind works. I tend to be somewhat of a dreamer. I think of far off places, fantastic characters, exciting events that happen in the past or future... I think of a specific theme and wrap game mechanics around it. In Perfect Stride - Cross Country we knew we wanted to create a game around the idea of a cross-country race that involved horses and jumps. Once we decided on the theme, we could begin asking questions which would spark ideas involving game mechanic.

Some of the questions we began asking ourselves were:
"how many jumps do we have?"
"are players in teams?"
"are the jumps 'jumper' style jumps or a combination of natural obstacles and constructed jumps?"
"does the race happen over minutes, hours, days, weeks or months?"
"what determines who wins the race?"

We just kept asking ourselves question after question after question, slowly refining the game and defining it by answering these questions. I've discussed brainstorming in previous posts and early on in game design, thinking of theme and brainstorming on theme can really help you come up with lots of different ideas. While brainstorming on theme it's extremely important that you only think about the what, where, who and why. Do not limit your thoughts by thinking about the how. How will come later, when you get back to thinking about abstract mechanic.

The game mechanics which were created for Perfect Stride - Cross Country required thinking of purely abstract concepts. It's important to really understand the difference between theme and abstract mechanic. Once you understand the differences, you can begin to keep your design process focused on one or the other. This will really help you fine-tune a game idea when play-testing begins.


That's it in a nutshell! Theme vs Abstract game design and creation!

Get those braincells moving! Start an Analogue gaming group with your friends! You'll have an awesome time and it's a perfect excuse to hang out and meet new people!

Feel free to comment on the blog, we'd love to hear your feedback!
Thanks for reading!
~Jeff.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff is a professional artist by day and analogue game designer and avid board game player by night and on the occasional weekend. ;)

Perfect Stride:Cross Country! Is the first game to be published by Funleague Games. It is currently in production and will be on gaming store shelves and available for purchase directly from Funleague Games at a vaguely ambiguous time in the not so distant future!

Follow our creation process here on funleaguegames.blogspot.com and stay tuned to find out when the game is released!

Next Time: Game Artwork! (can I be any more vague!?!)

P.S. Bloggers are encouraged to quote from Funleague Games articles as long as they give us a proper credit for the quote, do not change the content and provide a link back to the article they're quoting. ~Thanks for being so web savvy!

Analogue Game Creation, Part 2

"Low-Hanging Branch" Art Credit: TK

Hi there, Jeff here again with Part 2 of:

Funleague Games - Analogue Game Creation series!

This week I will cover the second topic in the series, Game Mechanics. If you aren't sure what an Analogue game is, read the second paragraph of part one of this series linked here:
analogue-game-creation-part-1

Analogue Game Creation, Part 2. Game Mechanics!

“Game Mechanic” refers to the function or functions that make the game what it is. Whether it’s poker that uses a series of colours, symbols, numbers and combinations of those variables to create Hands. Or a game like clue where you move a piece around a board and one by one check off weapons, rooms and suspects in order to eliminate the innocent and deduce the guilty. Or even chess in which each piece moves in a limited and specific pattern and the purpose is to catch the king. These are all references to game mechanic.

The challenge of playing any analogue game revolves around its game mechanics and the limitations imposed by those mechanics. Without limits, a game would not hold any challenge at all. Let’s face it, without limitations, you always “win” as you can do whatever you wish and well, you might as well just not play if you already know the outcome!

The process I go through in order to create a specific game mechanic is very iterative. I get many ideas for game mechanics while playing other games and one way to create new mechanics is to take an existing mechanic and brainstorm on it in order to come up with new twists or alternate ways of doing the same thing. In fact, a very effective brainstorming method which I use all the time, is to utilize what I like to call a “Seed Idea” to generate new ideas. With Poker, I might say, replace the 2 colours with 4, remove the face cards or better yet, increase the number of face cards and change the play order according to the amount you bet. (in 10 seconds I just came up with a new game concept all based on a seed idea…Poker, don’t say I never gave you anything! :) That of course is a very broad use of the term Seed Idea.

That brings up another issue with game mechanic creation. It all sounds and works perfectly in your head when you’re thinking up different ways to play your game, it’s an entirely different story when you sit down with a prototype game to ACTUALLY play test the mechanic you’ve so brilliantly created with real people! With Perfect Stride – Cross Country! We have gone through at least 10 prototypes and countless different variations of game mechanics. In a constant test, change and iterate cycle that slowly over time has refined the game play to a point where the game is now balanced enough between skill and luck to be challenging and still unpredictable enough to hold a great level of excitement for the players! It’s one of the most exciting parts of creating a new game. At times it can be challenging. When you’ve gone through version 36 of your game and it’s still not quite there, sometimes you just need to acquiesce and take a break. It’s amazing how a day or two away from an idea will sometimes give your brain the time to come up with the answer to the specific gaming challenge you’re struggling with. Of course, I always work on more than one game idea at a time. This way I’m never caught just twiddling my thumbs looking for something to do.

Many games like to boast about how unique their game play or mechanic is, yet, it’s rare to play a new game that does not have at least a remote similarity to another game which came before. For example, rolling dice as a randomizer is a very common game mechanic that is used all over. Many European style games (“Euros”) shy away from the die rolling mechanic in favor of resource management as a game mechanic. (how many X do I need to buy Y, what do I do once I have Y, where can I sell Y in order to gain Z?) The thought is to minimize random luck in favour of decision-making to give a player the win. Although honestly, most Euro’s just replace a die roll randomizer with a card draw or randomly drawn tile to introduce the random factor so I can’t say that ALL Euro’s are purely skill-based!

Many Card games and more importantly, My favourite… Perfect Stride – Cross Country! ;), doesn’t use a board to keep track of player position as you might use in a classic racing style game. It uses what we call “Pace Cards”. These cards have a hierarchy and that hierarchy helps determine who is where in race order. (really exciting stuff!)

In creating our horse-themed game, we’ve spent literally hundreds of hours tuning game mechanics, trying different twists on specific ideas, sometimes pulling out our hair in frustration and sometimes jumping for joy at a new concept that works perfectly. The take-away being that intriguing game mechanics are NOT easy things to create. They require much testing and an enormous amount of iteration in order to refine into a smooth playing game.

If you’re working on your own ideas, remember test, change, test, change, test, change… It’s a wonderfully engrossing process and half of the fun! The game that we originally envisioned which WAS Perfect Stride – Cross Country! is not at all the same game what we’ve developed to this point.

Don’t be afraid to let go of a mechanic if it’s not working. They’ve all been done before and they’ll all be done again, you just need to pick the right combination that creates the perfect game. Like we have with Perfect Stride. :)

Thanks for reading!

~Jeff.

Jeff is a professional artist by day and analogue game designer and avid board game player by night and on the occasional weekend. ;)

Perfect Stride:Cross Country! Is the first game to be published by Funleague Games. It is currently in production and will be on gaming store shelves and available for purchase directly from Funleague Games at a vaguely ambiguous time in the not so distant future!

Follow our creation process here on www.funleaguegames.blogspot.com and stay tuned to find out when the game is released!

Next Time, Part 3! Abstract games VS Theme based games!

P.S. Bloggers are encouraged to quote from Funleague Games articles as long as they give us a proper credit for the quote, do not change the content and provide a link back to the article they're quoting. ~Thanks!

Analogue Game Creation, Part 1.

Hi there, I'm Jeff. Lead Game Designer for Funleague Games. I plan on creating a series of articles on analogue game design and what better place to start than with our first product, Perfect Stride: Cross Country!

Before I continue, Just one definition to explain, Analogue Games. Essentially this means any non-electronic style game. The antithesis or opposite of “Digital Game” if you will. For example, Monolopy is an Analogue Game, Pac-Man is a digital game. Now on to the important stuff…!

This article will cover the process I normally take to find inspiration for a game and how I begin the process of design. The way I go about it is probably not new and has most likely been written about in other places but I'll put my own take on it and maybe we'll both learn a thing or two!

I was reviewing my very first notes and thoughts I wrote for Perfect Stride: Cross Country! (I will refer to it as "PSCC" if I get lazy). As a game designer it's important to realize right up front that what you first envision as "the game" is 99% of the time not what your game will end up being. So much change, playtesting, altering ideas and general evolution occurs when you go through the process of creating your game that what you started with and what you end up with are usually somewhat if not completely different.

This leads to my other thought, know what you're getting into and what to expect from the process. If you get so caught up in a particular idea you may end up missing out on a better mechanic or theme or concept that will evolve your idea beyond just being an idea. Don't be afraid to let go of your initial concept if you all of a sudden latch onto something wonderfully more compelling.

With that thought firmly planted in my mind, I usually begin the entire process with a THEME. Some designers like to begin with a game mechanic and wrap a theme around it but I tend to find inspiration in THEME and use it to develop game mechanics that work well with that theme.

For example, with Perfect Stride:Cross Country!, my art director, Kay, decided on the theme for this product and this theme is especially integral to our target audience. Horse Jumping. We also decided (and in this case it was very important) that the game needed to be a card game due to the lower initial investment (we hoped at the time)

I've taken classes on thought process, brainstorming and idea creation and through years of practice, I know what method of idea creation works best for me. I have the type of mind that spontaneously creates thoughts and ideas using seed ideas one idea creates the next and so on. I do also sometimes have spontaneous ideas completely unrelated and that is a great way to kick your thoughts in another direction (more on that later). Originally, the game began as a series of scribbles about horses and I always start this way.

Like this:
Horses, tack, leather, shoes, jumps, dirt, dust, galloping, speed, danger, riders in helmets, gloves, chaps, equipment, speed, friendship, sunlight, nature, cross country, stride... I can go on for hours and that only took about 30 seconds.

When I begin the process, I essentially start by creating a list of words that are inter-related and I write down every single one that comes to mind, even if I repeat myself repeat myself. This is classic brainstorming at it's most base level. Don't limit, or cut off your thoughts because part of your mind doesn't agree with the other part that gave you that word. The moment you begin to edit what comes to mind the process slows to a halt and you loose the spontaneity of the moment. The more you explore this brainstorming process, the easier it becomes.

Back to my initial notes... I always have a small hardcover notebook to begin the process. I like to sit down for a specific session and take down notes and thoughts on the theme or idea until the ideas stop flowing. I feel that in order to be successful in the early brainstorming stages I need to be in a comfortable place and most importantly it needs to be as convenient as possible for me to take notes otherwise the effort can get in the way of the thought process. No TV, kick the pets out of the room, stop surfing the web and sit in a quiet place (cellphone!) I know some people find it easier to concentrate in a room full of people and noise... but don't ask me how they do it, they must be insane.

The initial thoughts I wrote on PSCC were a few pages long and that was enough. I then left it at that for a couple days while I did other stuff. I wasn't under a deadline to get this idea off the ground at the time so I had the luxury of letting it simmer in my head. Which isn't always the case. I would also go back to the notes occasionally and add more as they came to mind.

Once I had my initial brainstorm list of words, I could selectively take these words and pick out ones that seemed intriguing enough to use as a basis for the game. At this point I began to take words such as race.

So there you have it, how I begin my game design process and how Perfect Stride: Cross Country! began life.

Next installment: Game Mechanics! What do I do in this game!?!

You can read part 2 here: Analogue Game Creation Part 2, Game Mechanics!

Thanks for reading,
~Jeff.

Jeff is a professional artist by day and analogue game designer and avid board game player by night and on the occasional weekend. ;)

Perfect Stride:Cross Country! is the first game by Funleague Games, it is currently in production and will be on gaming store shelves and available for purchase directly from Funleague at a vaguely ambiguous time in the not so distant future!

Follow our creation process here on funleaguegames.blogspot.com and stay tuned to find out when the game is released!

Time to display a couple more samples of art!

Hello everybody,

It's been awhile since I posted any artwork on the Perfect Stride blog. Our extremely talented artist TK has been hard at work these past couple of months creating more drawings for our cards. Here are a couple examples of her work so far:

Keep up the great work TK!

Early Days - Part Two "Figuring Out A Few More Basics"

Okay! Here are some other basics Jeff and I had to consider:

How big should the deck be?

• That has proven to depend upon a few things such as number of players, how many variables we were prepared to deal with, printing costs and art costs. We wanted the deck to have substance, yet still maintain some kind of control on the budget.
  

What should we price the game at?

• Now that one is ongoing. Naturally we need to make some sort of profit as a reward for our hard efforts and the main way to estimate what kind of pricing is involved is by breaking down the "per-unit costs". For example, we make an initial assumption that the first print run might be about 5000 copies. Therefore, we would get a printing quote for 5000 copies of the game. And then add to that the cost for artwork creation. And legal fees. And advertising. That sort of thing. Add all those costs together, and divide by 5000. That will be our per-unit cost.
  

How should we package and present the game?

• We need to look at a couple of key things here. One is; what kind of presentation will be most appealing to people? We want the theme to be immediately recognizable and we want to convey the message that this is a quality game. A game where it's a high-calibre entertainment experience made of durable materials that will be a pleasure to handle. The other consideration is how much will the packaging and materials cost? Printing/manufacturing costs are arguably THE most expensive part of creating a board or card game. And the quotes will vary widely with each print shop we approach.
  

Legal stuff?

• A board or card game is a creative product. It's art and entertainment, meets commerce. There's intellectual property, copyright, trademarks and other basic business considerations. We recognize that it's a good idea to protect our hard work and ensure that all communication is organized and in writing. Legal stuff is not only about protecting what's ours; it's also about being clear about obligations when engaging in business with another party. When it comes to hiring artists to create artwork for a game, copyright ownership is one of the biggest key factors. It's important to ensure clarity about who owns the art. Paying an artist to create artwork doesn't necessarily mean we actually own it. It's essential to have an "Artist Agreement" in place. This is a legal document that details the rights and obligations between Funleague Games and the artist. Artists work hard to do what they do best (we know this firsthand...Jeff and I are both professional artists) and naturally will want to be clear about all the details involving the work they do.
  

What kind of art style am I looking for?

• This is an important thing to figure out, but it can be a tough one. The style of art is heavily influenced by the style of the hired artist(s) working on your project. It's important to choose carefully who will be creating the visuals for the game. Arguably good art will sell more copies of a bad game than bad art on a good game. People like things to look "cool" or "beautiful". Make sure you deliver in spades in this area by having a strong vision for what your game should look like and by only hiring artists who have an art style compatible with that vision. Art style should also take into consideration the target market your game is aimed at. In the case of Perfect Stride: Cross-Country!, I'm going for a style that is distinct from other games on the market. I also want the style to be inclusive and appealing to the full range of my target audience. For example, I need to avoid an art style that is too "young" as my target audience are people ages 7 and up. I want to feature artwork that has a fun innocence to it, but at the same time possesses enough refinement to appeal to a more mature audience.
  

Who's our audience?

• This is important right out of the gate (now there's a theme-appropriate expression :). Even at the earliest design phase it's important to know our demographic. For example, if we designed a game to include a lot of deep and subtle complexities or tons of arithmetic, chances are that kids under 7 years of age could find the game too difficult. As for Perfect Stride: Cross-Country!, I feel that this will be a game that can be enjoyed by almost everybody, but the primary audience will likely be people who love horses. And as there is an element of strategy to the game, the very young may struggle with some of the gameplay concepts.
  

Marketing?

• This is SOOOOoooo important. If Jeff and I never bother to get the word out about our really cool game, how are we going to sell it? Entire books (and even university degrees) are devoted to the topic of marketing, but suffice it to say it's important that we learn a little bit about how to promote our product. Not only will we not sell any (or very few) copies, but so many people will never get the chance to enjoy a super-fun horse-themed experience! As our game is very strongly based on a specific theme (or niche) one of the first things we'll do is seek to get the word out at places where the horse-loving public like to visit such as horse-themed websites, tack shops, equestrian magazines, etc.

Whew! That was a lot of ground to cover. I think between this post and the previous one, I've covered many of the basics that have been part of our game-making experience so far. Hopefully this information has been enjoyable and informative. :)

Early Days - Part One "Figuring out the Basics"

I wanted to talk about the card game back in the early days. As it's been over a year since Jeff and I started working on Perfect Stride: Cross-Country, my memory of those times is getting a little foggy. Despite this, I'll do my best to pull some of those old details out of my head and onto this blog.

Naturally, as with many things, the game started out as an idea. There were several times where we thought "aha! This is it!" and away we'd go full-steam...only to discover a problem. Gameplay logistics were the main sticking points. We were cutting some new ground with this card game; it wasn't closely based on any other specific game so we didn't have a tried and true template to work from. Rather we referenced bits and pieces of gameplay elements from other games we'd played and from our own vision of how we thought things should work considering the experience we were trying to emulate. Two other resources that have definitely been invaluable are Board Game Geek and Board Game Designer's Forum. Thanks to everyone there who has posted such excellent info!

Here are some examples of things we had a tough time figuring out:

Our card game is essentially a race across country on horseback. You jump obstacles along the way...how do you represent that? Do you use tiles? Do you lay the cards out all at once, or one at a time? Face-up? Face-down? That kind of thing.

Another element we struggled with was how the rider order was represented during the course of the race. If you were in first, but then dropped back to third, how would you know? We tried a bunch of things such as using charts, placing a token amongst the jump cards, etc. After a lot of trial and error, we eventually figured out a system that wasn't confusing (unlike our earlier versions).

We also struggled with trying to inject some strategy into the gameplay. We definitely didn't want this game to be all about "luck of the draw". We wanted the players to have to evaluate each situation and choose a best course of action.

Strategy does add depth to a game, but on the flip side of this a bit of chance can really spice things up and keep you wondering as you draw that next card. As this was a racing game, we didn't want the players to get too bogged down pondering their options. That would detract from the idea that you were all moving at high speed over terrain in a dash for the finish line.

These are just some of the many things we needed to figure out as we developed out initial idea into something fun, functional and richly thematic.

Stay tuned for Part Two of the "Early Days".

A Couple More Illustrations

Hi everybody,

I thought it would be nice to show a couple more illustrations just completed by our talented artist Sherann. Very nice work!

A new artist has recently joined us and we should be seeing some of her exquisite work within the next couple of weeks. Let's all welcome the artist currently known as... TK!

Here are the latest two illustrations from Sherann. The top is for the card called "Stumble" and the second is for the card called "Headwind".

Let's Start at the Beginning

Hi folks,

Kay here. How do you do? Jeff says hello as well. We are both the founders of Funleague Games.

About a year ago, Jeff and I had an idea to create a card game. We've both worked in the video games industry for about 10 years, but we've been fans of good ol' traditional card and board games for even longer than that; since we were kids, basically.

Being a bit of a horse fanatic, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to make a horse-themed card game?" You can never have enough horse-themed stuff out there in the world. A card game would be super-cool. So we embarked upon the journey of creating our very first card game.

It's been an interesting adventure. We had to "learn as we go" so lots of wrong turns have been made, but every exploration has lead to a terrific experience and a stronger game.

Jeff and I look forward to documenting this journey. We have some catching up to do to get you all up to speed on where we're currently at.

Stay tuned!

Looking for Talented Illustrators!

Funleague Games is currently seeking very talented illustration artists who are able to draw horses, riders and the environments they live in with a realistic flair and a hint of style. Below are a few examples of what we're looking for: (art credit: Sherann)

If you are interested in being one of the featured artists in our game, send a link of your art samples to Kay at funleaguegames (at) shaw.ca.

Welcome!

Hi there!

Welcome to our blog! This will be an account of the creation of a card game as it progresses from concept to completion.

We'll try to update regularly, but hey, when you're working on an incredibly fun and intriguing card game you don't have much time for other things let-alone blogging! But we'll do our utmost to keep you - our best fans - in the know!

Thanks for reading. Be sure to come back regularly to catch our latest news.

Jeff & Kay
Funleague Games.